Castleford Tigers boss Lee Radford hands deal to highly-rated Super League forward

Castleford Tigers have been busy in the recruitment and retention market in recent weeks.

And, now the club has revealed that Lee Radford has handed Brad Martin a new deal.

The 21-year-old promising young forward has played 20 times for the Tigers, scoring one try since joining the club from the Leeds Rhinos youth ranks for the 2020 season, and in the latter stages of that campaign, he made his Super League debut as part of a winning Castleford team against Hull KR.

In 2021, Martin continued his development making nine appearances and scoring that first try in Cas colours against Salford. So far in 2022, he has featured ten times, particularly shining, and making an impact when he has come onto the field.

Martin insists that there is much more to come from him as he goes into his fourth season at The Mend-A-Hose Jungle in 2023.

“I’m really pleased that I have signed for another two years. This currently is my third season at the club, and I’m really settled and really enjoying it,” Martin said to castlefordtigers.com.

“The main thing for next season is to get the game time and show the coach what I can do. I’ve done well with game time, but obviously next year I want to push on a little bit more.”

“When Brad has played, I’ve been very impressed with him, and we want to see him continuously progress well.” – Lee Radford

The former Dewsbury Moor player is relishing being around the squad and playing under Head Coach Lee Radford and says that the boss has brought a new lease of life to the Tigers squad.

“I’ve learnt a lot. Radders has been really good for us and all the players. He’s brought a new spark onto the team this year, you can see that with a couple of the results. It took a while for us all to get to know each other and click but we’ve done that now and we’re looking to kick on.”

Brad now joins fellow young players Jason Qareqare, Sam Hall, and Cain Robb in committing his future for a further two years to the Fords. A good core of young talent wanting to make their mark.

Lee Radford is particularly pleased to have Brad tied down and thinks he’ll only get better as time goes on.

“I like what Brad brings in terms of his energy and leg speed, he is another kid we have at Cas that trains with good intensity and he has benefitted from having the likes of Joe Westerman, and others, in and around him giving him the pointers that a young middle can thrive on.

“When Brad has played, I’ve been very impressed with him, and we want to see him continuously progress well.”